A court in Delaware, USA, has fined a Greek shipping firm USD2 million for the deliberate cover-up of pollution after the crew blew the whistle on the practice. The Greek-based Navimax Corporation, incorporated in the Marshall Islands, was also placed on probation for four years, during which time its fleet will be monitored.
When the US coastguard boarded the company’s Nave Cielo oil tanker in December 2017, a crew member gave the officers videos that showed high-volume discharge of dark brown and black oil waste from a five-inch pipe, 15-feet above water level. An inspection revealed that the illegal discharge had taken place the previous month after the ship left New Orleans en route to Belgium, and was not recorded in the vessel’s oil record book.
David C Weiss, US Attorney for the District of Delaware, said: “The message to the shipping industry is clear: environmental crimes at sea will not be tolerated.”
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